Of closeness and completion
by ANdyanamic
Summary: Nine days after the fight Hiccup notices how much Astrid has changed. He still wonders about her sudden change of heart a little. When she invites him for a special date, the time has come to finally talk things out...AstridXHiccup


AstridXHiccup Fanfic. Thanks to greyrocks and Sailorstar165 for the beta reading!

**-Of closeness and completion -**

It was the third week after the fight. Hiccup still struggled with his new leg and the occasional ache. At least this was something that could easily happen to any viking and nobody saw him as disabled. Well... maybe special, but in a good way.

He couldn't believe how much Berk and its people had changed...mainly Astrid. The way she looked at him, the way she talked to him...the way she -listened- closely when he talked to her now were completely different.

Even the kind of stuff he could talk to her about was more than he could have ever expected, she obviously wasn't just interested in fighting. She liked to carve small figures or weapons out of wood after a training day and liked to play percussion instruments when Berk had a celebration and musicians were needed.

Still, her main hobby was fight training and she was the kind of girl that went for the win, always. But she was intelligent too, as long as her agression didn't control her completely. She had told Hiccup for example that she really had read the book of dragons, just didn't like to talk about it much... like Fishlegs did. Also, she didn't remember much of it since she had only read it once. After all, Fishlegs was the one obsessed about information, not her.

Astrid trained with her dragon almost every day. It was a Nadder which she had named Blueberry, but she used to call her "Blue". She and Blue had become quite close friends, almost like Hiccup and his dragon.

Astrid also got along very well with Toothless and was even interested in Hiccups ideas and inventions. But there was one thing she was definitely more interested in right now - Hiccup himself, giving him small kisses whenever she felt like it; and cuddling up to him whenever they shared a few minutes alone.

She also didn't punch Hiccup anymore, at least not very often - this day he made the mistake to mention that fact when Astrid visited him in Gobber's blacksmith's shop. He immediately received a hard punch from her. With a kiss afterwards which Hiccup didn't, obviously, complain about. Then she grinned at him with a cool look on her face and said "Sorry Hiccup, but you asked for it!" and both shared a laugh.

"So, handsome. Wanna date tonight?" Astrid asked him with a wink, her hands resting on her hips.

Hiccup smiled. "Sure. But as a precaution, how'd ya like me to wear an accessory then?"

"An accessory?" she wondered and rised a brow.

"Like this shield for example." He grabbed a very big one and playfully posed behind it. "What do you say? Does it fit my clothes? If not, I have this armour here. Yup, perfect for a date with you. Can you imagine it reflecting the moonshine tonight? Ah, so romantic!" Astrid laughed out loud.

She loved Hiccup's wierd humour. In the last few years she hadn't laughed very much. Not as much as she had in the last few weeks anyway. How come she had never tried to get to know this guy? Well, he was the last one she'd have expected to get along with. But as it turned out, they fit together very well. There was no denying the dynamic chemistry she felt with him, out in the dangers of the woods and the sky or in the saftey of the village.

Astrid asked Hiccup to visit the place where she had met Toothless for the first time. Later that day, both arrived there after having spent a few hours of flying with their dragons. Toothless and Blueberry rested at their new homes now.

On their way to the clearance Hiccup noticed Astrids eyes. She had unbelieveable beautiful eyes. But the thing that catched his interest was the way she looked at the landscape from time to time; even stopping for a few moments on two occasions and talking about why she liked what she saw.

He was surprised how much she could enjoy the so called small things in life when she didn't focus on fighting. This was new to him; he had never noticed her talking about that with someone else. No wonder she was overwhelmed on her first flight.

On the way she told him about several significant places where she trained and how she picked them for their atmosphere. She also seemed to watch him closely as if she was thinking about him a lot while talking. There was a sparkle in her eyes when she was looking directly at him. Finally they arrived.

"But why here anyway?" He asked.

"Well, this is where I knocked you down. It's time to redress that." she said with a smile and a wink.

Hiccup smiled back, but also blushed and shyly rubbed the back of his head.  
Astrid created a fireplace and Hiccup collected some wood as the sun was going down, its light flooding the clearance with bright orange light.

They finally lit a fire. After an hour of talking and laughing about past events Astrid suddenly stood up. She put her arms behind her head and untied her hair.

"What the...?" Hiccup stared at her, not believing his eyes.

Astrid's hair fell down in layers of yellow beauty as she shaked her head in order to free them without messing them up. It was surprisingly thick and firm, compared to the hair on her forehead and gracefully rested behind her back.

"Satisfied?" she smiled, turning a bit left then right, her hands resting on her hips.

Hiccup felt his heartbeat getting faster, "Wow, er..yeah.. but I never told you that I wondered how you would look with your hair down..."

Astrid chuckled. "One of the things I noticed was that you were obviously interested in my hair because you are always looking at it...you even grabbed it a few times whilst kissing me" She kneeled down in front of him.

"You're... so beautiful." Hiccup said.

"Thanks, Hiccup. You are very handsome, too." She moved a little bit closer; her hand reached for his face and stroked it gently.

"I like your freckles a lot. And that small scar under your mouth is pretty cool." she said with a grin.

He leaned against her hand, and put his one on it, aggravating her tenderness.  
"First day at Gobber's blacksmith's shop, don't remind me." he commented and rolled his eyes.

"I guess I just did." Astrid and Hiccup laughed, and then he remembered what she had said after untying her hair.

"So, anything else you that noticed I'm interested in?" he asked curiously.

She looked away and bit her bottom lip. Did she really want to do this? Her eyes widened. She did. So she looked back at him.

"Oh yeah...." She laid her arms around him and gave him a kiss. This time it was very long and eventually a playful one, tilting her head from time to time.

Hiccup knew this situation well - from one of his dreams. And now it was really happening! And it was even much more intense than he had imagined it to be. His very soul longed passionately for this girl.

But something felt wrong anyway, something felt... incomplete.

And then she suddenly started to French kiss him, tenderly stroking his head while pushing her tongue into his mouth. Hiccup's eyes opened widely. Although he wanted to enjoy it, he couldn't. Right now it was too much for him and he carefully tried to pushed her away. She looked irritated but still caressed him. Then she tried to kiss him again.

"Astrid... no, wait a second.. No really, STOP!!" he said, almost shouting.

Astrid blinked ...then stopped, "What?" she looked at him in shock. "I thought you like me."

As Hiccup looked away, Astrid's face changed from disappointment to a glare, "Am I not attractive enough for you or wha.."

Hiccup interrupted her, shaking his head. "Don't talk nonsense. I've had a crush on you for years."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow and her glare dissappeared immediately. "For...years?"

"Yup." Hiccup answered, slightly blushing.

Astrid was visibly surprised, "Wow...Well...I can't say the same. I thought you were cute looking sometimes, but... never mind. The important thing is that it has changed. Now my eyes are on you, don't you realize that?"

"I guess I do." he answered. "But why?"

Now Astrid looked at Hiccup even more surprised and stunned. Not in a good way for sure.  
"Wha... Are you blind?? Because I..." Astrid paused for a moment, shut her eyes for a second and clenched her fists as she opened them with a glare.

"Because I love you, dammit!"

Her eyes widened when she realized what she'd just said. Hiccup was stunned, Neither of them had ever said those words to each other. They looked at one another, deep into each others eyes.

Then Hiccup smiled at Astrid and she smiled back. "I love you too, but.."

"But WHAT?" Astrid shouted. She felt a shock running through her mind and started to feel helpless inside. What was he doing? Why did he want to ruin this evening?

"I... I still can't understand it. First, you did all these violent things, like using my head as leverage to get your axe off my shield. You even dropped that thing on me... and now, just like that..."

Astrid looked at the beautiful dark sky, then at the gracefully burning fire and sighed. The mood and the atmosphere she had built up was definately destroyed, but this seemed very important to Hiccup, so she sat down next to him. It was time to talk things out; once and for all.

"Hey, it's the viking way, that's how I was raised to be. How I was taught to deal with..."she looked away and sighed again "..weak people. Especially as a girl who wants to become a respected fighter."she explained.

Hiccup looked away for a second. He knew she had a point.

"You're right, I am weak. So what's the deal with me? I mean come on - One flight with Toothless and you changed your mind completely? How could that happen?"

Astrid thought a moment whether or not to be honest with Hiccup. And how honest to be for that matter. Then she realized how far she had already gone by admitting her love for him and she made her decision. This was tough for her but it would definately brin their relationship to a new level.

"Because it amazed me. At first I was just angry and frightened, but when my mind got some rest... I realized you had managed something I could never do; no matter how much I had trained to be a good viking."

Astrid looked away and paused a second. She saw her father, she felt the beatings again; she heard him scream at her. No, it wasn't time to talk about that yet. This was about her and Hiccup.

Meanwhile Hiccup's eyes looked at Astrid in surprise and he blushed. He would never have expected her to say such things. Never.  
"I.. thank you. But I'm sure ..you might as well have.."

"NO." she interrupted in a scary serious tone, still looking away. She knew what she had to say and her eyes became unfocused, her attention fully consumed by her thoughts. Then her voice lost some of the coolness and changed to a softer, amost weaker one. She spoke very carefully. "Ok, here's my secret: I... I never really wanted to kill a dragon... But I would have done it if I'd been the one bringing Toothless down. Immediately."

Hiccup swallowed. This sentence brought images into his head he absolutely didn't like. Not one bit.

"But I know: I would have hated myself for that... and would've ultimately put my hate on the dragon, on all the dragons. And I would have continued killing dragons like all vikings do.. for the rest of my life. I'm glad ou saved me from that destiny. If I will have to kill someday, it won't at least be one of these charming creatures."

Her expression went back to normal, her eyes now staring into Hiccups. Suddenly, she had this loving, warm gaze again similar to the one she gave him on the cliff the day she returned his hope again.

Astrid continued, "So what I realized was..that in a way, you're stronger than any of us... and I immediately wanted to..." She blushed.

Hiccup felt blood rushing into his ears. "To what?..."

"To get as close as possible to this amazing person."  
Astrid approached Hiccup slowly, almost whispering the last words directly in front of his face...he could feel her breath on his lips.

"To get as close as possible...to you." She kissed him gently, yet he felt passion hidden within her kisses as he kissed her back.

"It's so weird. It's as if you had already told me most of that." Hiccup said.

"No wonder, remember the cliff?"

Hiccup's eyes widened. "That was about you and your feelings for me?"

Astrid smiled and shrugged "I guess whatever a person says also always tells you something about themself... whoa, that's a deep thought, what do you thin--". Hiccup stopped her by putting a finger on her lips. Again he was deeply surprised by the girl.

"I want to get as close as possible to you as well, Astrid." Hiccup said.

"So why don't you wrap your arms around me then?" She hinted with a warm smile, guiding his hands right to her back. They embraced each other tightly and after a long kiss which ended as an intensive French one, they lay down in the grass. It was dark now and they could see the stars. Astrid closed her eyes and cuddled up to her boyfriend, took a deep breath and let herself exhale slowly.

"Hold me tight, Hiccup. And never let me go..." Astrid mumbled, opened her eyes and saw him giving her a surprised and awkward look. Then she realized what she just had said and blushed.  
"Um... or else!" she added, showing him one of her fists. After a second, they shared a laugh.

"Well then, in order to survive, I guess I have to follow your command." Hiccup grinned.  
"Good boy." Astrid said in her familiar cool voice and chuckled, patting his head. Hiccup smiled and embraced her gently, enjoying her scent, which seemed to fill the air around them.

'She smells a little bit like flowers, with a hint of strawberry and damp earth.' he thought.

She tightened the embrace and felt the same, his scent reminding her of cinammon. As she closed her eyes she noticed that she hadn't felt this much peace in a long time. It was like a gift not to be filled with anger, hate or aggression... in other words fear and insecurity.

Finally she could allow herself to show weakness without actually having to feel weak, in contrast to what her father had taught her. Since she was a kid that dreamed of becoming a fighter she went through pure hell.

Her father had'nt believed in her for she was too thin and looked rather limp. But she had insisted on becoming a fighter, so her training was painful and merciless. Her father had tried to discourage her and and it took him years for her to finally gain respect. In all these years she had focused on her training and little on friends. Of course she used to hang out with Ruffnut from time to time. But often, only one thing truly helped her compensate the ache of a hard training day when she had been younger; her fantasies.

Whenever her father had told her to take a break or finished the training, she used to take a seat outside. She would watch the landscape and the sky, trying to forget about the pain and let herself be immersed in her daydreams.

And mostly she had dreamed about being able to fly.

The last one or two years, Astrid hadn't allowed herself to daydream and used aggression as well as anger to strengthen herself in order to avoid failure.

Realizing that she was actually fulfilling a dream on her first flight with Toothless and Hiccup had been a complete blast for her mind. She had felt young again, felt her joy and hope again. The tender part of Astrid that she had been locked away was set free and returned to her personality that day.

Still her fear of failure controlled her blood pressure, but it started to get better, especially around Hiccup. She would never forget the inner strengh he had shown her when he refused to tell the village about the dragon's nest. How brave he had been whilst facing his own failure the day he refused to kill a dragon in front of the whole village. He had shown her a complete new view of life and walking his way brought her inner peace. No wonder she fell for him with every piece of her heart.

"We're kind of an odd couple..." Hiccup chuckled. "A fighter and an inventor."

Astrid let out a small yawn and nugded his neck with her nose.

"Well, handsome, I could teach you how to fight better and you could teach me how to invent..."

"Fighting training? With you as my teacher?... Ow." he grinned with a goofy face, and recieved a punch on his arms. Then, her hand opened and stroked his cheek.

"Only if you'd like to, but this way, we also could spend more time together. I promise I won't kick your butt until you're ready for it... You should know I prefer kissing your lips now, Hiccup," she said with a wink, and he received a small kiss.

He gave her a warm smile. "Well, I guess I could use a little training, but I'll never be a good fighter like you, Astrid. Not possible."

"Same here with the inventing, but this way... we complete each other."

They kissed tenderly and savored each other's closeness and love while the last piece of wood went out. The moon shined on Astrid and Hiccup in all its splendor, covering both with a blue, magical glow.


End file.
